Organizing for Global Effectiveness: Ethnicity and Organizations

Abstract

Emerging global organizations with multinational and multicultural personnel are failing because of internal cultural and value differences. They are also failing by focusing on their internal organization rather than striving to adapt to the external environment. Traditional organizational models and structures lack the flexibility to accommodate the diversity required today. This study discusses the theoretical basis for organizational change and organizational research methodology, including action research, used by the members of a regional organization of a major US multinational corporation. It further discusses how existing theory and research were modified by regional personnel in order to meet organizational change requirements. It demonstrates the potential of an old social model — the ethnic group — and attempts to demonstrate its positive potential as a model for developing a global organization. It also focuses on the processes used to develop an ethnic organization. This organization, based ...